The crypto industry as a whole is full of techy and complicated things that may confuse you. Some of the 200+ currencies we support require different measures to take before exchanging them. Over 70% stuck transactions happen due to the negligence of these measures. We will take a closer look at common mistakes happening during the exchange process and sort out the possible aftermath. Let’s look into issues occurring with XRP destination tags, NEM’s messages and memos in Steem, Stellar and Decent.

Destination Tags, Memos and Messages

If you’ve ever sent XRP, Steem, Stellar, Decent or XEM to Changelly, you are likely to know about Destination tags, Memos and Messages. These are short combinations of digits and letters that help us determine your payment and send exchanged money to a ‘recipient’s address’ you put in when creating a transaction. If they are specified incorrectly, your transaction may get stuck in Limbo or go to another Changelly user.

Ripple Destination Tag

Destination tag is used in XRP transactions. It is the most tricky thing you should be extremely careful with. If you send XRP to Changelly, you should specify a destination tag when sending. The generated tag is tied to the recipient’s address, so that Changelly automatically sends money to that address, once it gets confirmation from the blockchain. If you mix up digits in the tag or put in a random combination, you may encounter quite frustrating issues. Your money will be sent to Changelly, but your transaction won’t go through due to the error, and you will have to contact our support team and ask them to process your transaction manually. Another, and the worst, the scenario is that you may occasionally send your XRP to an unknown person whose recipient’s address is already tied to the tag you specified. In this case, we can’t help you out.

Example

John is about to exchange XRP to Bitcoin. Let’s say his transaction is already created and he should send us XRP to exchange them. He sees a screen below:

John opens his wallet app, puts in our wallet address. And then, when putting in the destination tag, John is like: ”Ah, whatever, I’ll put 12345 instead! Anyway, it’s still Changelly’s address. The tag is unnecessary stuff.”

This is the very moment John makes a terrible mistake because 12345 is the tag tied to a wallet address of another Changelly user who is obviously not John! Once XRP is sent it will go to the wallet address provided by that user, and John will lose his money forever! The worst thing is that we can’t help John in this case, since we don’t control funds sent to our customers.

Poor John. Don’t be like him and always send XRP with a correct destination tag. Only in this case, your transaction will pass through in the right way.

Message

The NEM’s message as such is quite confusing. While sending XEM to Changelly, some of the users omit it or take too literally sending something like ‘I love Changelly’, ‘Greetings from Germany’ or ‘This is my first salary’. Instead, the NEM’s message represents a combination of letters and digits shorter than a wallet and works the same way as XRP destination tag. If you omit it or specify incorrectly, your transaction will not pass through. You will have to send to our support team a request so that we can process your stuck transaction manually.

Memo

The Memo is unique supplementary information used in transactions with a range of cryptos listed on Changelly, such as Stellar, Steem and Decent. Although Memo works similarly in all these platforms, it is important to mention that they utilize different algorithms. For all of them, entering the Memo is a mandatory measure. When sending either, you must indicate your memo, so that our machine will know that the transaction comes from you. If the memo is omitted or incorrect… well, now you know the outcome. Changelly will have to process your transaction in a correct way. It requires you to report us about the issue.

Stellar memos look like the combination below. So do memos of Steem and Decent.

Please bear in mind that the screenshots above are just an example. All Destination tags, Messages and Memos are unique for each our user. Never use the given examples for your own transactions.

Recipient’s addresses of XRP, NEM, and Stellar

Similarly, when buying XRP, NEM, Stellar, Steem or Decent on Changelly, make sure if you need to input either a Destination tag, Memo or Message to receive your coins to a recipient’s wallet. Always provide this information, if required. Otherwise, your money will be sent as an unassigned transaction to your wallet provider, and you will have to contact their support team trying hard to prove that the transaction belongs to you.